Author Archives: Doc

2023 The John Carter Memorial Award

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Flop.

It is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of movies. At times it is really a matter of opinion. Others it is painfully apparent as to whether a film has flopped. Sadly, 2023 saw more than its share of flops.

Truthfully, even some of the better movies of the year could be considered a flop this year because of the way the box office seems to be going. I know that there will be some films on my Top 30 films list of the year that would be considered a flop. It has been a tough year.

Even the juggernaut of film companies, Disney, has lost its share of money on movies this year. If it can happen to Disney, it can happen to anyone.

The excess of streaming services can be blamed for some of these flops. Who wants to go to the theater when they can just wait a few months and see the film on Disney + or on Max?

The John Carter Memorial Award is given to the film chosen by EYG as the biggest flop of the year. This year was a tough decision.

Past years had some tough choices too.

John Carter Memorial Award

Previous winners:  John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section, Reminiscence, Strange World  

This year had plenty of runners-up.

Dis-Honorable mention: One of the reasons that these films are considered flops is the size of the budget. Some of these movies just spent too much money and had no chance of making it back. One example was the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was a decent movie, but it seemed as if no one was going to go see it. Certainly not enough to make up a budget of reportedly 294.7 million dollars, not counting marketing. Another film with a budget too high was the first official flop of the MCU, The Marvels. I liked that movie a lot, but it did not make it to $100 million domestically. Killers of the Flower Moon also did not make much money domestically with a considerably larger budget than this type of film usually has. Shazam: Fury of the Gods did not succeed on building on a successful first film. Disney’s latest film Wish should have done much better business than it did, just showing that Disney is struggling to put together that classic animated hit. Big George Foreman only made $5.7 million worldwide on a $32 million dollar budget. I did not see it either. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the best films of the year, but it just did not make much moolah.

Of all of these, though, there is one that should have been way more successful and should have been a lynchpin of the films this summer. 

Winner: The Flash  

This was a huge DC Comics film, featuring one of the top characters of the company. The Flash had a nine year TV show preceding this. And yet, it was as if everything was playing against The Flash for Warner Brothers. Starting with the craziness of its star’s life over the last couple of years. Ezra Miller made headlines with his behavior and it reflected poorly on The Flash. Though not the sole reason for this film’s downfall, it did play a part. Secondly, the film was not very good. It had some parts that were solid, but a film that saw the return of Michael Keaton as Batman should never have had this much trouble. Third, everyone knew that this was a film that was staggering to the end as the whole DCEU was being revamped into the DCU by James Gunn and this film would not go on. 

I’ve always liked the Flash. He is one of my top DC characters. This was, at best for me, okay and I could see the numerous problems with it. I never would have guessed that it would only make $55 million opening weekend. 

That makes this the John Carter Memorial Award winner for 2023.

Moonlighting S3 E2

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“The Man Who Cried Wife”

This was a really strong episode because it moved the relationship between David and Maddie along. Some of the scenes between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd were very strong when they were fighting over spontaneity. 

Mr. Bower, in a fit of passion, killed his cheating wife. Panicking, he took her into the forest and buried her. The next day, he received a phone call from her. Of course, he was shocked. It led him to hiring Dave and Maddie.

Dave and Maddie did a decent job on this case, which is something that you cannot say every time. They discovered about the affair, they traced the phone call and they figured out that what had actually happened.

I also loved the conclusion to the episode, because typically when the reveal comes about, it leads to a chase scene, but this felt much more mature than some of those. Not that I want to put down those chase scenes because they are always fun, but it was a nice change of pace.

They toned down the fourth wall breaking too, with one, very subtle, reference the ‘home viewers.’ It worked very well.

We also get the first appearance of Jack Blessing as MacGilludy, one of the office workers who would be a recurring character. 

Picket Fences S4 E3, E4

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“Pal Joey”

“Bloodbrothers”

It was weird today as I watched episodes three and four of the fourth season, but on Amazon Prime, The episode three was entitled “Pal Joey” and episode four was titled “Bloodbrothers” but the truth was that those titles were backwards. The episode I saw in the morning was “Bloodbrothers” and the one I watched tonight was “Pal Joey.”

Bloodbrothers was one of the better episodes of the fourth season. It was a self-contained episode focusing on John Littleton whose brother, Dale, escaped from prison and showed up on his doorstep looking for money.

This, obviously put John in a bad situation, being the Rome District Attorney. However, it got worse as the other prisoner who escaped along with Dale, showed up with a gun in hand. This led to John getting shot and Dale being killed.

I have to say that the only drawback I had of this episode was the score did not feel as it fit the story that it was telling and was a distraction of the episode.

In Pal Joey, we are introduced to Dr. Joey, played by Amy Aquino. A talk show/doctor who shows up and tries to strong arm Jill into selling her practice. It turned into a partnership between Jill and Dr. Joey. 

There was further advancement of the marital strife between Douglas and nuMyriam. I have really not liked this story arc because it turns Douglas Wambaugh into a real jerk. Wambaugh has always been a shyster lawyer who would do anything, but he had a heart of gold and was a good man deep down. This whole episode made Douglas look terrible. There may be more coming with this, but this does not feel like the character that we have seen over the last three years.

It was weird considering I only intended on watching one Picket Fences today, but with the strange mix up on the episode order, I had to watch “Pal Joey” in order to stay in the right stretch. It was much like the Twilight Zone during this past summer’s Daily Zone as there were several episodes that were out of order according to the list of Twilight Zones episodes. Not sure why this happens on Amazon Prime, but I have it straightened out as of now. I am going to have to keep my eye on these last season episodes to make sure they are in the correct order.

Fargo S5 E4

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“Insolubilia”

What an episode this was.

We start off with Gator leading a group of men, masked by the creepiest masks, into Dorothy’s house in an attempt to get her to return with them.

That did not go as they had planned.

This was like a real-life, more brutal Home Alone sequence as Dorothy had booby trapped her house and played with the home invaders like a cat playing with its prey.

Oh, and speaking of creepy, the Tiny Tim version of “I Got You, Babe” playing as the crew slowly moved through the traps was just goosebumps inducing.

That was… until Wayne stumbled into the situation. Poor, dumb Wayne needed to listen to his wife’s directions about sliding down the laundry chute, but he decided to try something else, which got him electrocuted.

It also caught the house on fire. It made the whole situation even more of a challenge as Dorothy had to try and get her unconscious husband out of the house and to safety.

That included dumping him into bushes from the roof. Oof!

We got to see more of Sheriff Roy Tillman and his own brutality. He is so manipulative and crooked, but able to easily work the system to his favor. He was remarkably intimidating and sinister through this episode, even making up details to service himself.

John Hamm is amazing as this sociopath. I believe everything that this guy does and says. He feels like a total lunatic in a position that allows him the power to do what he wants. 

Juno Temple is awesome as Dorothy as well. Her strength both physically and emotionally was on display not only with fighting off the home invasion, but also at the hospital with Deputy Witt Farr and her mother-in-law.

This really was an excellent episode that had me engaged from the first scene. 

Picket Fences S4 E2

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“Reap the Whirlwind”

A tornado was on its way to Rome, Wisconsin and it sent the populace into a tizzy.

It was also the longest tornado I have ever seen. It was raining there for what felt like multiple days at a time. I’m just not sure this was the way weather worked.

Lots of storyline arcs taking place during the tornado.

  • Carter decided to take up quilting and meets a new woman.
  • Kenny is having sex with a hooker.
  • Maxine sets up a sting and catches said hooker.
  • There is a new Miriam Wambaugh.
  • Doug and nuMiriam had an anniversary party where Doug made a bunch of dumb jokes about her and their marriage.
  • Zack gets worried about Kimberly and rides his bicycle ten miles through the tornado to get to her.
  • nuMiriam leaves Doug after the tornado.
  • Carter was worried that his reputation was going to chase the new woman away- so he gives up on her and quilting.
  • Judge Bone talked Carter out of his stupidity.

Honestly, this episode was not a very good one. None of these storylines felt as if they had any sort of connection or throughline to them. So far, season 4 is not off to a great start.

Moonlighting S3 E1

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“The Son Also Rises”

Season three started off with a message to the audience with Dave and Maddie sitting on her desk. It was a joke about how Moonlighting lost all those Emmys after receiving 16 nominations for season 2. It was a funny joke, but I remember watching those Emmys and being really mad about Moonlighting losing.

We get to meet David Addison’s father, David Addison. Who knew that our David was a junior?

He came to see David to tell him that he was going to get married. David Sr. wanted David Jr. to meet her.

Thing was that David Jr. had already met her. Four years before, he picked her up in a bar and slept with her.

This episode had a nice balance between seriousness and silliness from David Jr.

Paul Sorvino appeared as David Addison Sr. Brynn Thayer played the woman. Two solid castings for the show. We added to the family of our two main leads.

By the way… Maddie looked amazing.

May December

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A major Academy Award potential film has been on Netflix for a week or so and I have just had the time to get to it. May December is an unsettling, awkward film based loosely on a true story.

According to IMDB, “Middle aged Gracie (Julianne Moore) lives a happy, well settled life with her husband [Joe (Charles Melton)]. Some years ago she was involved in an unsavory scandal but for her it is all in the past. Movie actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) is on a visit to this home and she is on a mission. This visit is a part of her preparation to play the role of Gracie in a movie being made. As she goes about talking to the family members Gracie wonders whether Elizabeth will uncover some secrets from her past and will some skeletons be revealed.“

Gracie, as an adult, had an affair with 13-year old Joe, and she spent years in prison for statutory rape. However, they stayed together in a relationship and had children.

There was a definite ick factor going on with this story.

Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman were both outstanding as the two main women of the film. Charles Melton was also very good as Joe, the younger man who was not sure what his relationship was.

I will say that the ending was a little questionable for me. I was not expecting the ending and it through off my entire thought process of the film. That is not a bad thing in the end.

3.6 stars

Picket Fences S4 E1

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“A Change of Season”

The first episode of the finale season of Picket Fences started with a solid episode with a lot of character development.

Carter’s house burned down, and he had to be carried out. Turned out that he took some pills. mixed with some wine that caused him to fall asleep while there was something on the stove.

We learn that he took the pills with the idea that he might die. He was not exactly suicidal here, but the concept was definitely there. Judge Bone offered to have Carter move in as a border in his big house.

We also had Kimberly decide that she did not want to become a lawyer and instead go into medicine. That created some conflict with Jill.

Another storyline was Marlee Matlin, new series regular, trying to make changes at the police station, including uniform changes that Jimmy balked at.

Maxine dyed her hair blonde (I remember always hating it, by the way) and that led to a deeper conflict with Kenny. They split up as a couple.

There is no major storylines going here, but there were a lot of little things that will play into the fourth season.

Honestly, my memory of the fourth season was that it was a step back from the first three seasons, but we’ll see how it goes.

The X-Files S2 E3 & E4

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“Blood”

“Sleepless”

Two good episodes of The X-Files followed one of the best one.

Both were dealing with victims who were seeing things, whether it was because of a pesticide being secretly sprayed on a small town or because of a secret sleep experiment to create soldiers who never slept.

We meet a couple of important characters to the X-Files mythology. First, there was a meeting between Mulder and his new ‘friend’ inside the FBI, X. We get to see what X looks like, though we know very little about him. And as we saw at the end of the second episode, Cigarette Smoking Man does not know who X is at this point either.

The second character is FBI Agent Alex Krycek. He is introduced as another agent who partnered up with Mulder and said that he wanted to believe. He is shown as a potential new ally, but we learn that he is one of CSM’s flunkies.

The Lone Gunmen make their return in Blood, to spew some of their paranoid ideas. They are in a short moment but they were memorable.

For All Mankind S1 E5

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“Into the Abyss”

Apollo 15 landed on the moon in search of ice. A last minute change of landing location placed the crew in jeopardy, but lead to a huge success.

Molly Cobb became the first American woman to step on the moon. Meanwhile, her husband Wayne is struggling through the anxiety of the uncertainty of not knowing what might happen to Molly. He confessed to having a terrible dream of Molly dying in a pit. It was something that he then painted, trying to get the anxiety out.

Meanwhile, Molly and Ed were preparing to lower her into Shackleton Crater to search for ice. The amount of oxygen available has been depleting, making everything very nervous.

I kept waiting for something horrible to happen to Molly. With all the dreams and paintings about her death, I was scared that she was not long for the show.

For All Mankind did a great job of creating that tension in the situation and kept me off balance as a viewer.

The end of the episode saw Apollo 15 take off from the surface of the moon and then we got a two year time jump.

Merry Little Batman

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This is probably not for hardcore Damian Wayne fans.

If you can get past the fact that Damian Wayne, who is typically a very dark and violent character, is smoothed into a family friendly cartoon version of the character, then you will enjoy this hectic, engaging and fun-filled animated romp. If taking the darkness out of the story bothers you, well, skip this one.

I am not offended by the edginess removed from the Bat-Family, so I was able to watch and enjoy the Merry Little Batman special on Amazon Prime.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “This Christmas, Damian Wayne wants to be a superhero like his dad–the one and only Batman. When Damian is left home alone while Batman takes on Gotham’s worst supervillains on Christmas Eve, he stumbles upon a villainous plot to steal Christmas and leaps at the chance to save the day.”

Luke Wilson voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in this movie, which was an interesting choice. It definitely revealed the changes of the character since fatherhood took over. Yonus Kibreab voiced Damian and James Cromwell was Alfred Pennyworth.

Several iconic Batman villains make their appearances too, including Joker (David Hornsby), Penguin (Brian George), Poison Ivy (Therese McLaughlin) and Bane (Chris Sullivan).

Animated in a family friendly way, Merry Little Batman is absolutely directed to a younger audience, but it did not lose the humor or the message to the story. Damian learns a valuable lesson about being a superhero, about sacrifice and about Christmas.

This is a lot of fun and, if you allow yourself to enjoy the film, you will. If your preconceived notions of what Batman or Damian Wayne is supposed to be, then you may get in your own way.

3.75 stars

Picket Fences S3 E18, E19, E20, E21, E22

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“Without Money”

“Final Judgment”

Picket Fences episodes E18 and E19 were kind of a two-parter focusing on euthanasia and the law against the practice.

Jill aided one of her patient’s death by turning up his morpheme. He was dying from cancer and was suffering and in pain. The patient’s family asked Jill to help him die.

This led to Jill being placed on trial. Courtney B. Vance came to town to prosecute her. He wanted to make a message out of her in the town of Rome.

The chunk of the episode featured the trial and an argument over euthanasia. The biggest argument was that the law of euthanasia was irrelevant because it was against the law and Jill admitted to breaking it.

Shockingly enough, Jill was found guilty. The next episode turned out to be the case against the law of euthanasia.

This was very well done and poor Jill is once again potentially facing jail time.

“Saint Zack”

Zack’s hands started bleeding while he was praying at church and looking at the crucifix. The blood made Rev. Henry Novotny think that Zack was a stigmatic.

The episode went into serious questions about religion, especially for Jimmy. Jimmy’s anger ended up with him declaring that Jesus was a fake.

Other students in the school started treating Zack like a saint, including asking him to heal a leukemia patient. Zack also gets hit in the head by a thrown stone.

Adam Wylie does a solid job in this episode, but there was a lot of pretentiousness in the show.

James Cromwell and Marlee Matlin make appearances in this one.

“Upbringings”

James Coburn makes a guest starring appearance as Jimmy’s big time lawyer father who comes to give Jimmy his law practice. Jimmy flips out.

The latest family episode, where the tangential family members come to the Brock family and fight, involves Jimmy and his father’s relationship.

The kids even made a comment at the family table about relatives coming over and leading to fights.

Yes, they had a family dinner scene that leads to major problems. One wonders where Douglas Wambaugh’s wife was every time he comes over to the Brock’s for dinner.

“The Son of Rome”

Violence comes to Rome once again as a teenager attempts to find money for his gambling debts by holding up Father Gary Barrett in his own confessional. The teen ends up shooting Gary with an Uzi.

This was a tough episode. I remember when it originally aired because I never thought that the show would kill off Father Barrett and I expected him to come out of his state. When he did not, it was quite the shock.

It also provided Henry Bone with some real meaty material as his friend, a man who helped him through the suicide of his son, was brain dead. Judge Bone had a terrible blow up on the bench when Barrett’s assaulter came before him.

This was the first time that we ever saw a case be sent to a different court, but clearly Henry was not impartial and had some deep seeded feelings about the situation.

Wambaugh sings a very emotional song at the end at the special spring pageant that Mayor Bey refused to cancel, despite the shock of everyone over the shooting of the priest.

Moonlighting S2 E18 E19

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“Funeral for a Door Nail”

“Camille”

These last two episodes wrapped up season two of Moonlighting. E18 was a typical Moonlighting episode with the twists and funny chase scene. E19 featured Whoopi Goldberg, Judd Nelson and a lot of “Devil With the Blue Dress.”

Both of these episodes included a technique that was used quite a bit during the entire series, and especially in these two: Breaking the Fourth Wall.

Moonlighting became very famous for breaking the fourth wall. It is a technique where the actors speak directly to the camera or act as if they know they are in a TV show. The show had been weaving a few of these nuggets throughout the first couple of seasons.

The thing is, these final two episodes really dove into the concept. During “Funeral for a Door Nail,” there were multiple fourth wall breaks written into the dialogue, including a clever shake of the camera when David asked the audience a question.

Then “Camille” took it to an even greater extreme when they had their chase scene through the backlot of the film company and a weird conclusion that saw everybody putting the props away because it was the final episode of the season and it was time for the summer. They did not even bother to end the storyline with Whoopi Goldberg and Judd Nelson.

While I do love the Breaking of the Fourth Wall, I do think that the writers of the show did take it too far a few times. Every time it happened in “Funeral for a Door Nail,” I laughed and enjoyed it, it felt as if they were overdoing the technique. And the end of “Camille” was just way too much, turning the episode into a strange slapstick adventure with everything including Billy Barty.

The use of the fourth wall break became something that the series became over reliant on. I remember loving every time it would happen when I watched the show on ABC, but now, on my rewatch, it does feel as if it has been over used. Less is more, in this case. The real reason Moonlighting was as successful as it became was because of David and Maddie and their relationship, or lack there of. The will-they-won’t-they struggle of these two is what kept bringing the fans back, but it did seem that the writers continued to expand on some of the things that were novel to the show, but secondary. And I believe season three (although it also contains the best episode of Moonlighting ever with “Atomic Shakespeare”) continues down the path of mistakes in choices. I wonder how much the noted feud between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had to do with it.

2023 I Am Groot Voice Acting Award

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“I am Groot” Voice Acting Award

Previous Winners:  Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes),  Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)

Every year, there are talented voice actors who create characters with their voices. In this category, we include animated movies, CGI characters, and even live action characters whose face you never see.

There are always a lot of great choices. Here are the Honorable Mentions…

Honorable Mentions: A couple of actors from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse included a great performance from Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen and Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099. Vin Diesel does a great job as Groot both in Guardians Vol. 3 and I Am Groot animated shorts. The iconic Peter Cullen brought Optimus Prime back to the live action Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The four young actors, Micah Abbey, Shannon Brown Jr., Nicolas Canter, and Brady Noon in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem were brought together in the studio to do their voice over together. Daveed Diggs appeared as Sebastian in the live action Little Mermaid flick. If I had a basic runner-up, it would be Jack Black in The Super Marion Bros. film.

And the winner: Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)

Rocket was the emotional heart of that movie and Bradley Cooper brought his best work from the franchise. Though he did not record the really young Rocket, he did the majority of the character and did the most painful parts. He has been exceptional as the raccoon and he is a big reason why Rocket is a major character in the MCU.

Doctor Who Special 3: The Giggle

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The third Disney + special featuring The Doctor was dropped on the streaming service. We have seen the return of David Tennant as the Doctor. I had not been a viewer of Doctor Who over the years with just a few exceptions here and there. I liked the first special and loved last week’s special and so I was anticipating the next special.

Without spoiling anything, I loved this ending and the resolution was absolutely amazing and changed the mythology of the Doctor for now on. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it has been known that the next Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa was scheduled to appear in this special. How it came about was great.

Neil Patrick Harris is playing the villain of the special and, once again, I do not intend on spoiling what villain since I believe it is an important Doctor Who character (at least I think it was). Harris is always great and I did enjoy his over-the-top performance of that actor.

There were some real emotional moments in the special, especially between Tennant and Catharine Tate. I do believe that there are some other fun faces that reappear from the history of The Doctor’s adventures.

These three specials have made me a fan of this version of the Doctor. There is a Christmas special still on the horizon and I am excited to see it.

4.5 stars